Who hasn't asked this question? This matter is so present online that some countries are discussing antitrust laws, due to Google’s monopoly as much as other internet services, such as Facebook.

But, you’re reading this article not because you don’t like Google, but because you want to understand how websites are ranked in this searcher. 

In general, there are two ways to have a higher rank on Google: the organic rank, also known as natural or free; and the sponsored links rank (Google Ads), naturally paid.

Organic or natural rank (free)

In a certain way it is wrong to name this a free rank, although the ranking is made without paying Google for it (we’ll explain ahead why the organic rank can’t be directly manipulated). 

First things first, you have to understand how the Google bots work. They’re 24/7  inspecting all websites. Only escape the websites and directories with good restrictions or that communicate with these softwares, informing them to not index certain directories. 

Google has over a thousand servers throughout Earth. All of that to speed up the search from anywhere you are on the planet. In these servers are stored all the archive services from the Internet giant (GMail, YouTube, BlogSpot etc.), and mainly the website index bots. These bots do nothing more than visiting the websites and indexing them, creating a rank based on relevance, according to the key-words you typed on the search bar.  

But what is relevance? That’s Google’s big brainwave. Besides sweeping the internet, the company created an algorithm that has as the major function doing a quick data analysis and informing which websites are more relevant for you.  

Roughly speaking, who’s on the top of Google’s organic rank? Many Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies can be important. Follow below the most essential ones. 

1. The website or page must have code items talking to the bots

Whoever works with the internet must know the requirements for talking to the bots, inserting codes on the website to prepare them and “speaking the same language” as these softwares. The caution with metatags, the page title, the website description or even the key-words inserted in the codes are the initial points to dialogue with the bots. If your website is better in one of the following topics, for example, it doesn’t have to be that well configured by the bots, for more and more Google has been prioritising other points. 

This conversation is so strict in many cases that we, website and system developers, even use a specific metatag on the website code, to speak directly to the bots. 

2. The more links scattered around the Internet pointing to the page or website in question, the merrier 

A concept is very important in this case: the website and page digital presence. In general, automatically the older websites have a better presence, because they are also indexed by other search mechanisms, service portals, lists, partners and other locations online. This happens many times without the owner or website designer company involvement. 

However, it can be improved forcibly, by trying to include mentions to the website in the most amount of links on the Internet, so that your page can be ranked higher on Google. Even if you get millions of mentions, you have to wait, because nothing can be done to speed up the Google bots indexing. Calm and perseverance are really important.

On this matter, including the company’s website on Google My Business (GMB) is important, because it inserts, in a patronised way, the company headquarters and subsidiaries ranking on Google Maps and on Google organic search. In general, for the searches that include city names, between the ads and the organic list, it presents the map with companies that have more relevance, combined with the city searched. 

Be sure to ask your website designer to insert your company on Google My Business. It’s required validation through a code, which is passed to the company phone or mobile and, in some cases, this validation is also done by mail, to the company address. 

Besides the possibility of the clients to rate the company, that should be answered by the organisation or the hired digital agency, in the last years Google launched the possibility of the companies to publish on their GMB profiles, which brings another digital communication channel. In general, the more updates a company profile has, and it is rated by the users, it’ll be better indexed in the organic rank on Google Search and Google Maps. 

3. The more visits your website has, the more it will be considered relevant

Just one of the important topics, which by itself doesn’t result in anything. For example: if you give an interview in some communication vehicle for the masses, like TV broadcast, at a prime time, in a national range and point to your website, the flud of visits can not only shut your server down, but also increase significantly it’s relevance, because your website will be visited by a huge amount of devices from different Internet Protocols (IP) addresses. It is worth mentioning that the visiting recurrence is more important than the access peaks, such as mentioned in the example. Keeping the visitors returning to your website, offering relevant content for the public you wish to conquer, is the best strategy. 

4. Content

Just like in the website codes, the bots love content.

As the years went by, Google’s algorithms were improved to make the textual content in the websites more and more important. So, if it’s possible, invest more on this topic than on all of the previous. The more relevant content you provide to your public, the better your digital presence will be. But be aware, because inbound marketing strategies don’t have return in a short term, but in a medium and long term. 

Why do you think we wrote this article? Of course we want to explain to you everything we promised in the title, but right now you’re accessing this company website and can be one of our future clients, if you’re not already. In case you’ll never become an EDEngland.co.uk client, at least you paid the website a visit and helped the bots to positively identify this page. In other words, while we are informing you on how to rank higher on Google, you’re helping us to improve our website indexing, making it more relevant online. By the way, thank you and you’re welcome!

An interesting point about the SEO techniques, which is considered by Google’s algorithm, is the reading time of a specific page. If you kept reading this article, you should’ve taken about two to three minutes of reading. Until the end of the article, you’ll take another two to three minutes, which sum a total of four to six minutes of reading. 

If the average visiting time in this article is bigger than the rest of our website pages, that is an important “message” for the Google algorithm, showing to it this article is relevant to you and probably to other people that search something similar to “how to rank higher on Google”, which is this article’s title and theme. 

 In general, the best thing you can do to invest in content is to hire a digital marketing agency or professional, to work on the published content in your website and social media. 

Most likely the content importance is, and will be for many years, the path to a good digital marketing strategy. This happens because it’s not about a strategy from the good old outbound marketing, in which we just promote a product or service, but it’s about sharing, on which the public contacts the company, because it has consumed an interesting content, and then thinks about the hiring (inbound marketing).  

Invest in content and never forget: planning is crucial! Without it you won’t get anywhere. 

In 2021, Google launched an update for the algorithm, Core Web Vitals, which prioritises, besides the content, the user's experience. Websites with a better experience, faster upload, as well as a more attention to the mobile version, are prioritised. With that, it’s important to keep in mind the algorithm is modified from time to time and, because of that, websites shouldn’t be considered as immutable platforms. 

It’s important to improve the websites for companies, projects and entities, so that they have a better response to the Google algorithm, in case indexing is a major factor to obtain new leads that can become clients.  

Ergonomic and usability errors, besides the upload speed mentioned, should be highly considered so that the website or a specific page can be more relevant to the public and, as  a result, be better indexed on Google Search. 

The Core Web Vitals three most important pillars are: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which prize and respond respectively to velocity, interactivity and visual stability. In summary, your website needs to be fast on the upload, interactive with relevant and recurrently published content, as well as having a visual stability in all versions for desktop computer, mobile and tablets, besides devices such as smart-TVs and others that may come. 

How to promote on pay-per-click links (Google Ads) 

Google Ads (former Google Adwords) idea came up from an employee (nowadays a business partner of this product) at the time Google rank was just organic. It’s obvious that one day they would monetise this rank, which today, besides the pay-per-click links, also produces income with data sales to major corporations all around the world. 

To promote a product, all you need is to have a website or a social media profile and configure your campaign. When the ads service came about, in the beginning of the 21th century, it quickly became the company's major income source, with a contribution of over 90% on the main sales. 

The service was revolutionary, because the advertisements only appear if the potential client is searching for what the advertiser sells, whom, by implication, only pays to Google in case the person interested clicks on the ad (Cost Per Click or CPC). Also, Google Ads uses the organic search algorithm to evaluate the advertisers websites, to make a proportion of cost per click needed, and then organises a kind of an auction. Appears on the top who have a better ratio between paying more per click and a better relevance on the page to be visited by the public. 

For those who have a small advertising budget, it was redemption. Contrariwise the traditional communication vehicles, who pay without any guarantee their public will see the ad, on Google Ads the investment almost always has a return. Besides that, there’s a whole metrics evaluation possibility of which key-words and ads had the best performance. 

The advertisements on pay-per-click links on Google made it possible for minors, micro companies and even freelancers to appear in the same importance level as major corporations. In a way, it quickly became a more democratic advertising tool. 

Google will never say it publicly, but it’s known that the investments on pay-per-click links substantially improves the indexing on the organic rank. Whether it is because the website naturally has more visitors (due to the clicks from the ads), or because Google has more return if the advertiser’s website is more visited. 

Among the resources that came up after Google Ads launch, there’s also the possibility for the advertisers to circulate their campaigns on Google Display Network, with hundreds of associated websites, majors and minors, which offer promoting spots to the platform’s advertisers. Therefore, through Google Ads you can advertise on major portals, besides Google’s own websites, such as YouTube, apps and other associated platforms. 

If you want to promote, you can do it directly with Google, investing just the amount for the ads to circulate. However, in case you want to focus your efforts on your business, we suggest you hire a professional or a specialised digital agency to create, manage and perfect your campaign. With that, you can count on a company’s advisor to be aware and mainly to keep your website on the ads rank first page. Since it’s about an auction, if you don’t improve your campaign, your ads will be demoted and you’ll have a lower return.

Want to create your website, a system or improve your online presence? Rely on EDEngland.co.uk!

EDEngland.co.uk has been working since 1997 in Brazil, producing innovation and technology and Digital Marketing campaigns.

Whether to strengthen your brand, attract new customers or build a stronger relationship with your clients, count on us. Get in touch via the website or by our WhatsApp +55 (48) 99916-7906.